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Hammer Films is delighted to announce that their upcoming horror thriller Doctor Jekyll will be available exclusively in the UK on Digital Download from 11th March 2024. An isolated mansion, a mysterious locked room, creepy corridors, a dusty cellar and a mad doctor… Hammer Horror is back! Dive into the haunting and enigmatic world of Doctor Jekyll. Starring the incomparable Eddie Izzard in a role like you’ve never seen before. A fresh, horror-filled take on a timeless tale, this adaptation promises to send shivers down your spine. Adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel, Doctor Jekyll is directed by Joe Stephenson, and also stars Scott Chambers and Simon Callow, as well as Lindsay Duncan, Jonathan Hyde, Morgan Watkins and Robyn Cara.

“In a year that marks a monumental milestone for Hammer Films, our 90th anniversary, we are proud to present ‘Doctor Jekyll’. This release is not just a new chapter...

A history of the most underrated British science fiction of the 1970s is, largely, just a history of British science fiction of the 1970s. It gets a bad rap. Think “1970s British Sci-Fi” and your mind will be flooded with associations of dodgy special effects, less-than-perfect gender politics, and so much knitwear. That, and a certain time traveller with a predilection for scarves and jelly babies.

But the truth is the 70s was a golden age for British science fiction stories with ideas and ambition, completely unrestrained by any concept of production values. While even the most pedestrian attempt at modern science fiction telly feels it has to go toe to toe with the MCU’s latest CGI eyeball-blaster, a year after Star Wars was on our screens the Doctor was still routinely facing off against dressed like this, and it was better for it.

Blake’s 7 (1978 – 1981)

Stream on: Itvx...

One of Tim Burton's favorite movies is Hammer's Dracula A.D. 1972, which he described as a "weird mixture of a Hammer horror film and swinging London." Despite his misfiring vampire comedy Dark Shadows, a Burton-helmed Dracula movie could revive the franchise and Hammer Horror. Burton's past successes with gothic horror make him an ideal choice to bring a fresh and more modern take to Hammer's Dracula.

One of Tim Burton's favorite movies makes him the best candidate to breathe life into horror's most famous monster. A quick look at Tim Burton's favorite horror movies reveals a broad diet of influences, but few that would be regarded as critically acclaimed masterpieces; instead, he loves old-fashioned B-movies like The War of the Gargantuas or Charlton Heston's The Omega Man. The director is also an admirer of classic British horror, including The Wicker Man or the works of Hammer.

Films about the end of the world are nothing new. But films about the real end of the world–the moments in human history that seem to have put us on an inevitable path toward our own self-destruction–are less frequent. In the 1950s, as the Cold War took hold and the threat of nuclear war escalated, most of the films that came out dealt with it in terms of metaphor, usually sci-fi ones, like giant irradiated lizards and insects standing in for hydrogen bombs.

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer addresses one of those moments in history head-on, giving us not just a glimpse into the tormented mind of the “father of the atomic bomb,” but a you-are-there, immersive front row seat to the very moment in which the first bomb was detonated and the end of the human race came into clear view, starting with what many now consider to...

The Halloween III: Season of the Witch episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? was Written by Cody Hamman, Narrated by Adam Walton, Edited by Jaime Vasquez, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

For two films, movie-goers watched the masked slasher Michael Myers stalk Jamie Lee Curtis and murder his way through the small town of Haddonfield on Halloween night. So you can understand that some were shocked when they went to see Halloween III and it wasn’t anything like the previous two films. Instead of more Michael Myers, they got a movie about a warlock who wanted to use the power of Stonehenge to kill millions of children. With masks that would melt their heads down into puddles of snakes and bugs. This change in direction did not go over well. For decades, Halloween III: Season of the Witch (watch it Here) was largely disregarded.

Director Zack Snyder is perfectly suited to not one but two different Stephen King movie adaptations. Some directors are just perfectly suited to adapting author Stephen King’s work. Frank Darabont proved this with 1994’s incredibly uplifting The Shawshank Redemption and 2007’s incredibly bleak The Mist. The Shawshank Redemption’s brilliant dénouement is often listed as one of the most satisfying movie endings ever, while The Mist’s brutal coda is frequently called one of the meanest twist endings of all time. However, these short story adaptations come from King’s back catalog and prove that the author and Darabont make a perfect pairing regardless of a project’s tone.

Zack Snyder could prove ideal for another pair of potential Stephen King adaptations. Admittedly, Snyder is a divisive figure. However, even Stanley Kubrick’s take on The Shining annoyed both King and critics upon its release, so a bit of...

Nigel Kneale, creator of the cult science fiction serial Quatermass, has been commemorated by a brand new set of stamps from his native Isle of Man.

The set of six Kneale Archives postage stamps is available from the Isle of Man Post Office and covers his career right from his beginnings in the theater, and his 1949 anthology Tomato Cain and Other Stories, to his iconic science fiction work, including the dystopian The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968), ghost story The Stone Tape (1972), and horror anthology Beasts (1976).

Naturally, Quatermass looms large (although it’s confined to a single stamp). The influence of the six-part Quatermass Experiment (1953), Quatermass II (1955), and Quatermass and the Pit (1959) – and their Hammer adaptations – can be seen in everything from Doctor Who to Stephen King.

Jane Asher, who has a small role in 1955’s The Quatermass Xperiment before going on to star as Jill Greely in 1970’s The Stone Tape,...

Shepka Productions and Flickering Myth have announced that veteran British actors Paul Barber and Annabelle Lanyon have joined the cast of the upcoming gothic horror feature The Baby in the Basket.

Paul Barber is best known for portraying Denzil in the iconic sitcom Only Fools and Horses and Horse in the classic British film The Full Monty – a role he reprises this June for Disney+’s The Full Monty sequel series. Among his other extensive film and TV credits are The Long Good Friday, The Brothers McGregor, Chancer, The 51st State, One Night in Istanbul and Renegades.

Annabelle Lanyon starred alongside Tom Cruise in the role of Oona in Ridley Scott’s 1985 cult classic fantasy Legend and also featured in the British horror Dream Demon and ITV series Quatermass. Recent credits include the horror films Werewolves of the Third Reich and Bite.

The Baby in the Basket also stars Amber Doig-Thorne,...

The process of designing The Thing's titular alien monster was so difficult that one early plan would have killed the film completely. John Carpenter grew up a fan of '50s sci-fi movies like Forbidden Planet and the Quatermass films and was particularly enamored with 1951's The Thing From Another World. This adapted the short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, about an Antarctic research base invaded by an alien creature that can imitate any living creature perfectly. The original film dropped that concept and instead made the monster (played by Gunsmoke's James Arness) a hulking, vegetable-based creature that resembled Frankenstein's Monster.

Director John Carpenter was such an admirer of The Thing From Another World that he was reluctant to remake it - until he realized he could go back to the short story's shapeshifting depiction of the monster. The genius piece of concept design that...

When folks say they love winter, typically they refer to the earliest months of the season, with winter beginning on Dec. 21 in the northern hemisphere. In those early days of holiday cheer, there is something familiar and comforting about the cold. But eventually the bright lights go away, and the wind howls louder. Eventually, all you’re left with is icy darkness.

Perhaps that’s why so many of the best horror movies are set during the winter season! Utilizing folks’ fear of barren bleakness, and the tedium of being trapped inside becoming lethal, filmmakers who run the gamut from Stanley Kubrick to John Carpenter have imprinted our worst nightmares onto the snow. Below is a list of their frozen works.

30 Days of Night (2007)

They have lived in shadows long enough. They are the last of their kind. But above the Arctic Circle there’s a party going on,...

Barbara Shelley in Dracula: Prince Of Darkness

Hammer Horror was known for its leading ladies but few put across as much force of personality as Barbara Shelley. Now the much loved actress has died, aged 88, after contracting Covid-19 in the run-up to Christmas and developing a secondary infection.

The London-born star, who began her career as a model, worked with Hammer during its heyday in the Sixties, on films including The Gorgon, Rasputin: The Mad Monk, Dracula: Prince Of Darkness and Quatermass And The Pit. She enjoyed a wider range of roles than most of her contemporaries, playing heroines and villains, vulnerable upper class ladies and capable scientists, always bringing a keen intelligence to her work. She had a passion for science fiction and horror and described Hammer as a family, considering herself very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. She continued to attend related events.

Barbara Shelley, an acclaimed British horror movie actress, has died at age 88 after contracting Covid-19.

Shelley’s agent, Thomas Bowington, told the U.K.’s press association that the actress spent two weeks in the hospital before Christmastime battling coronavirus. He added, “it’s most likely Covid is going to come up on the death certificate.”

Shelley was best known for her roles in classic horror films produced by London-based Hammer Film Productions (better known as Hammer Horror), including “The Gorgon,” “The Pit” and “Quatermass.”

She also starred alongside Christopher Lee in the 1966 movie “Dracula: Prince of Darkness,” directed by Terence Fisher. With that role, Shelley helped launch Hammer Horror’s productions into the pop culture lexicon and came to be known as the “Queen of Hammer.”

In 1984, Shelley joined the 21st season of BBC’s intergalactic sci-fi series “Dr. Who,” playing the role of Sorasta in the show’s “Planet of Fire” serial.

Barbara Shelley, best known for her numerous appearances in Hammer Horror titles across the 1950s and 1960s, has died. She was 88.

The actress died from underlying conditions on Monday after contracting Covid-19, her agent revealed.

Shelley starred in some of the best known horror titles from Brit production house Hammer, including The Gorgon, Dracula: Prince Of Darkness, Rasputin: The Mad Monk and Quatermass And The Pit, appearing alongside other icons of the genre such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Her regular appearance as the glamorous gothic leading lady in these films helped earn her the nickname the ‘Queen of Hammer’...

Barbara Shelley, best known for her numerous appearances in Hammer Horror titles across the 1950s and 1960s, has died. She was 88.

The actress died from underlying conditions on Monday after contracting Covid-19, her agent revealed.

Shelley starred in some of the best known horror titles from Brit production house Hammer, including The Gorgon, Dracula: Prince Of Darkness, Rasputin: The Mad Monk and Quatermass And The Pit, appearing alongside other icons of the genre such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Her regular appearance as the glamorous gothic leading lady in these films helped earn her the nickname the ‘Queen of Hammer’...

I’d never heard of this gem of a British production; now it goes on my list of highly recommended titles. A dock area on the Thames is ‘the pool,’ and the sailors that disembark from the cargo ships are susceptible to the temptations of black market trade. A single eventful weekend traces the fates of a half-dozen young people, the women that like the sailors, and the sailor that gets mixed up in a deadly serious crime. Director Basil Dearden’s excellent cast is mostly unfamiliar to us Yanks, but we get really tied up in their problems. This picture should be much better known. It’s the first English movie to depict an interracial romance, and it does so without sensationalism or special pleading. The best new extra is an interview with actor Earl Cameron, who at 103 years of age has his act (and his memories) totally together.

Is this movie ground zero for Atom-fear science fiction? The Boulting Brothers assemble the very first movie about a nuclear terror plot, without cutting corners or wimping out. The incredibly dry, civilized André Morell must track down a rogue scientist who threatens to nuke London; the entire city must be evacuated. Barry Jones is the meek boffin with a bomb in his satchel. The impressively produced thriller won an Oscar for Best Story; it’s practically a template for the ‘docu-real’ approach of the first Quatermass films. It’s also the link between ordinary postwar thriller intrigues and the high-powered, science fiction- styled terrors to come.

Seven Days to Noon

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1950 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / Street Date November 5, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Barry Jones, Olive Sloane, André Morell, Sheila Manahan, Hugh Cross, Joan Hickson, Ronald Adam, Marie Ney, Wyndham Goldie, Russell Waters, Martin Boddey,...

Don’t run away because we use the word ‘profound’ to describe this 1967 sci-fi classic — some call it the best of the Hammer Quatermass films, this time fully written by Nigel Kneale and acted by a terrific cast — Andrew Kier, James Donald, Barbara Shelley and Julian Glover. A subway excavation uncovers strange human skulls, and then a huge bluish craft that the Army dismisses as a secret German V-weapon… until it begins to emanate psychic storms and supernatural phenomena. Sci-fi fans wanting ‘more’ will be intrigued by author Kneale’s incredible ‘origin story’ for the human race as an intelligent, aggressive and literally haunted species. The disc is loaded with extras, information, history and great opinions from a half-dozen qualified film experts. Plus we can hear Nigel Kneale discuss it himself.

Quatermass and the Pit

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1967 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date July 30, 2019 / Available from Shout! Factory / 27.99

Starring: James Donald,...

Don’t run away because we use the word ‘profound’ to describe this 1967 sci-fi classic — some call it the best of the Hammer Quatermass films, this time fully written by Nigel Kneale and acted by a terrific cast — Andrew Kier, James Donald, Barbara Shelley and Julian Glover. A subway excavation uncovers strange human skulls, and then a huge bluish craft that the Army dismisses as a secret German V-weapon… until it begins to emanate psychic storms and supernatural phenomena. Sci-fi fans wanting ‘more’ will be intrigued by author Kneale’s incredible ‘origin story’ for the human race as an intelligent, aggressive and literally haunted species. The disc is loaded with extras, information, history and great opinions from a half-dozen qualified film experts. Plus we can hear Nigel Kneale discuss it himself.

Quatermass and the Pit

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1967 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date July 30, 2019 / Available from Shout! Factory / 27.99

Starring: James Donald,...

What ought to be appreciated as one of the most prescient of 1950s suspense films holds a place among the best science fiction movies ever — and it formed a style template for a thousand paranoid spy thrillers to follow. Val Guest pares Nigel Kneale’s fantastic storyline down to its essentials, making his scientist-hero the perfect secret agent to confront a sinister techno-political conspiracy… from outer space.

Quatermass 2

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1957 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 85 min. / Street Date July 30, 2019 / 29.95

Starring: Brian Donlevy, John Longdon, Sidney James, Bryan Forbes, William Franklyn, Vera Day, Charles Lloyd Pack, Tom Chatto, John Van Eyssen, Percy Herbert, Michael Ripper, John Rae, Michael Balfour.

Cinematography: Gerald Gibbs

Film Editor: James Needs

Makeup: Philip Leakey

Art Direction: Bernard Robinson

Original Music: James Bernard

Written by Val Guest, Nigel Kneale from his teleplay

Produced by Anthony Hinds

Directed by Val Guest

Here’s yet another fine 2019 Blu-ray release...

“Kinder der Eisigen Dunkelheit!” If those words don’t give you a chill, you may be one of ‘The Damned.’ Joseph Losey’s fascinatingly morbid reflection on atomic terror was too much for England in 1961, wasn’t released in the U.S. for four full years, and then only after being shorn of nine minutes of footage. An ‘impossible’ Cold War scenario puts military authority on the same moral plane as delinquent street thugs. Losey transplants his subversive sensibility to England, and the result is one of the top political sci-fi tales of all time.

These are the Damned

Blu-ray

Explosive Media GmbH

1961 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date June 13, 2019 /Sie Sind Verdammt / Available from Amazon.de

Starring: Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors, Alexander Knox, Oliver Reed, Walter Gotell, James Villiers, Tom Kempinski, Kenneth Cope, Brian Oulton, Rachel Clay, Caroline Sheldon, Rebecca Dignam, Siobhan Taylor, Nicholas Clay.

Cinematography:...

If the recent news of a new Quatermass movie being in the works got you in the mood to watch the original horror sci-fi movies featuring the daring professor, then you're in luck, because Scream Factory announced that they will release the Hammer's Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit on Blu-ray this May.

From Scream Factory: "Our love for Hammer Films this year continues as we announce today that we are prepping Quatermass II and Quatermass And The Pit for Blu-ray releases on May 14th!

Quatermass II (1957): The sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment! Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) is Britain's most clever scientist. Investigating a series of bizarre incidents that have been reported from a deserted area, he finds a group of soldiers and government officials that appear to be controlled by aliens from another world. When a close friend is brutally murdered by these beings, Quatermass leads a...

“I’ve harmed nobody, just robbed a few graves!”

The ‘Grave Tales’ Horror film series continues at Webster University Thursday February 7th with a screening of the groundbreaking Hammer Horror classic The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The screening will be at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). The movie starts at 7:30. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here. Look for more coverage of the ‘Grave Tales’ Horror film series here at We Are Movie Geeks in the coming weeks.

Having enjoyed success with the sci-fi horror film The Quatermass Xperimnet (1955), the Hammer studio was eager to further exploit the apparent appeal of darker content. In the early ‘60s, horror cinema had mostly gone out of fashion, with the popular big-screen monsters now being of scientific or outer space origin. After Quatermass’ success, Hammer decided to resurrect the Frankenstein property, it...

Just as there have been many spooky villains in Hammer movies over the years, there have also been many protagonists who protect our world from unholy horrors. Having appeared in several British serials and three movies, Professor Bernard Quatermass is one such hero, and Legendary and Hammer are teaming up with David Farr for a new movie featuring the classic character.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, David Farr, has "been tapped" to pen Quatermass, a new film for Legendary and Hammer. Produced by Simon Oakes of Hammer Films, the movie is viewed as a remake and will be supervised by Jon Silk and Jay Ashenfelter for Legendary.

Plot details are unknown at this time, but previous Quatermass serials and movies from the 1950s and ’60s often pitted Quatermass against extraterrestrial beings that threaten Earth, so perhaps we could see visitors from the stars paying the scientist a visit in the new film.

Kirsten Howard John Saavedra Jan 31, 2019

Hammer is making a new Quatermass movie and Night Manager writer David Farr is attached to pen the script!

If you've ever found yourself lounging around on a Sunday afternoon, pipe in one hand, steaming mug of tea in the other, slippers perched precariously upon the very tip of your toes, wondering to yourself whether Bernard Quatermass would ever be swept along with the relentless tide of remakes and reboots, we've got some good news for you: it's happening, according to THR.

There's more good news: Hammer's Simon Oakes is producing. Oakes was behind Let Me In and The Woman in Black, also at Hammer. On writing duties for the new Quatermass film is David Farr, whose recent jobs include The Night Manager and Amazon's Hanna TV series. Jon Silk and Jay Ashenfelter will be overseeing production on the remake for Legendary Entertainment.

If...

Legendary Entertainment said it haas partnered with Hammer Films for Quatermass, a film based on the British mid-20th-century sci-fi hero Bernard Quatermass.

David Farr, who penned the script for The Night Manager and the sci-fi pic Hanna, is adapting. Hammer’s Simon Oakes is producing. Jon Silk and Jay Ashenfelter will oversee production for Legendary.

The character Professor Bernard Quatermass is a rocket scientist originally created by writer Nigel Kneale, As a pioneering force of the British space program, he encounters terrifying extra-terrestrial lifeforms and must draw from science to save humanity. He appeared in a 1950s BBC series and in three Hammer Film movies in the mid-’50s and -’60s including the 1967 pic Quatermass and the Pit (known as Five Million Years to Earth in the U.S.). Andrew Keir played the lead role.

Farr, who also wrote and produced the...

Legendary Pictures announced on Wednesday that it is partnering with Hammer Films on a new adaptation of the classic British sci-fi series “Quatermass,” with “The Night Manager” writer David Farr attached to write the script.

Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional rocket scientist originally created by writer Nigel Kneale who, as a pioneering force of the British space program, encounters terrifying extra-terrestrial lifeforms and must draw from science to save humanity. The character has appeared in movies, TV shows, books and radio dramas over the decades, most famously in a hit 1950s BBC series that is regarded as the precursor to “Doctor Who.”

Hammer Films, which has produced several “Quatermass” films in the past, will produce th film with Simon Oakes representing the studio and Jon Silk and Jay Ashenfelter overseeing for Legendary. Farr is represented in the Us by UTA and in the UK by Curtis Brown Group.

Read...

David Farr (The Night Manager) has been tapped to script Quatermass for Legendary Entertainment and partner Hammer which promises to be a new take on the iconic British sci-fi hero. The film will be produced by Hammer’s Simon Oakes and follow the story of Bernard Quatermass, which was made popular by the successful BBC 1950s series, and a trio of films from Hammer Film Productions from the mid-50s to the mid-60s and seen as a precursor to Dr. Who.

Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional rocket scientist originally created by writer Nigel Kneale who, as a pioneering force of the British space program, encounters terrifying extra-terrestrial lifeforms and must draw from science to save humanity. Heralded as Britain’s first television hero alongside Sherlock Holmes, Quatermass’ monumental influence spanned films, TV series, radio programs and print media over five decades, most notably in 1967 when Hammer Film Productions...

The Night Manager writer David Farr to adapt screenplay.

Legendary Entertainment and Hammer are partnering on a reboot of the British sci-fi property Quatermass.

David Farr (The Night Manager) will write and Hammer’s Simon Oakes will produce the project, based on the fictitious British rocket scientist Bernard Quatermass immortalised in the 1950s BBC series and three Hammer feature productions.

The background of the story finds Quatermass forced to use his powers to save humankind after his work for the British space programme leads to an encounter with hostile aliens. He appeared in Hammer Film Productions’ 1967 feature Quatermass And The Pit.

Legendary Entertainment has partnered with Hammer Films for a movie reboot of the iconic British sci-fi hero Bernard Quatermass.

Made popular by the successful BBC 1950s TV series and a trio of films from Hammer Film Productions over the next two decades, the Quatermass character is often pointed out as a precursor to Dr. Who.

The new Quatermass feature will be written by David Farr (The Night Manager) and produced by Hammer’s Simon Oakes. The character Bernard Quatermass was launched on the BBC series in 1953 and reappeared in a host of TV and movie projects.

Jon Silk and Jay Ashenfelter ...

It's the Halloween franchise entry without Michael Myers, once dismissed as a confusing divergence, but now embraced and celebrated by the horror movie crowd. Here we'll take a look at 10 killer facts about Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

The night the no one comes home

It's easy to mock the tagline for Season of the Witch, a misunderstood box office bomb in which the star slasher of the previous two films was nowhere to be seen. But returning producers John Carpenter and Debra Hill hoped to rebrand the Halloween franchise as an anthology series, with the holiday itself as the anchor.

Joe Dante almost directed it

John Carpenter met with the future Gremlins director to talk about Halloween III. Dante dropped out of the conversation when Steven Spielberg and John Landis offered him a chance to participate in Twilight Zone: The Movie. "I know it got a lot of...

Don Kaye Apr 3, 2019

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey changed the face of science fiction cinema.

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered in Washington D.C. on April 2, 1968 and opened in New York and Los Angeles a day later. Four years in the making, Kubrick’s epic spanned all of time and space and spun an awe-inspiring tale of humankind’s evolution from primitive hominid to spacefaring superbeing -- and how we were helped along the way by an unseen alien presence beyond our comprehension.

While cinematic science fiction had produced landmark movies in previous years, such as Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the Quatermass trilogy, 2001 elevated the genre in terms of its depiction of the future, its stunning visual effects, and its sheer scope. 2001 ensured that sci-fi would never be dismissed as simple “kiddie fare” ever again, while the movie’s imagery,...

Sixty years on, the big-screen adaptation of the landmark play looks more conservative than revolutionary but Burton’s firepower is undimmed

John Osborne’s theatre of cruelty and misery exploded on to the English stage in 1956. Look Back in Anger was adapted for the movie screen three years later by veteran writer and Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale and directed by Tony Richardson. It now has a cinema rerelease, and maybe what it reminded me of right away was Robert Hamer’s It Always Rains on Sunday. In this film, it always seems to be Sunday, and it’s raining. The sheer choking sadness of the postwar British Sabbath is what comes across here most immediately – its meteorology of gloom. There’s nothing to do but feel listless and angry and read the raucous but somehow insidiously depressing Sunday newspapers. And the nastiness and casual racism of 1950s Britain is exposed...

David Crow Don Kaye Daniel Kurland Tony Sokol Jan 11, 2019

In the midst of wintertime doldrums, we compile a list of the 16 Best Winter Horror Movies to keep you warm with dread.

A New Year has come and the last of the holiday decorations have been stored away. Yet even if we have turned the page to what is hopefully a bright, shiny new 2018, the fact remains that if you live anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line, things are hardly warming up. In fact, winter is just entering its deepest and scariest throes with a chill that risks spreading to your soul, and there’s nary a Christmas light in sight for comfort. Perhaps that’s why now ‘tis the real season for a certain kind of horror movie. One so grim that the quiet, lingering dread in its backdrop can be as all-encompassing as a 10-foot snowfall.

Hence why we...

It creeps and leaps and slides and glides along the wall… and then it eats your face, dude. Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda’s ultimate monster mastication epic now looks sensationally gory, thanks to a full restoration. Arrow’s disc has pretty much everything, including two transfers and two audio commentaries. And Savant has a guilty admission to make — it was the tripe, the whole tripe, and nothing but the tripe.

Caltiki, The Immortal Monster

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Video USA

1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 76 min. / Caltiki, il mostro immortale / Street Date April 11, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: John Merivale, Didi Sullivan (Perego), Gérard Haerter, Daniela Rocca, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Daniele Vargas, Arturo Dominici, Gay Pearl

Cinematography: John Foam (Mario Bava)

Special Effects: Mario Bava

Film Editor: Mario Serandrei

Original Music: Roberto Nicolosi

Written by Filippo Sanjust

Produced by Bruno Vailati

Directed by Robert Hamton (Riccardo Freda) & Mario Bava

Who says that Blu-ray is dying?...

Ryan Lambie Nov 2, 2016

Before Arrival there was Charlie Sheen in The Arrival. Ryan takes a look at an unusual 90s sci-fi film...

When it came to sci-fi movies, 1996 was a crowded year: at the high end of the budget spectrum we had the invasion movies Independence Day and Mars Attacks; towards the middle we had John Carpenter's disappointing Snake Plissken sequel Escape From La, while Rutger Hauer starred in the cheap and cheerful Crossworlds and the brilliantly titled Omega Doom.

Throw in the startlingly botched Island Of Doctor Moreau, Star Trek: First Contact and Stuart Gordon's fun sci-fi oddity Space Truckers, and you have a busy 12 months in genre movies. Somewhat lost in the static was The Arrival, a nifty genre thriller which had the misfortune of coming out just a few weeks before the bigger, splashier Independence Day. A more modest and quirkier movie than Roland Emmerich's invasion flick,...

What better way to prepare for Halloween than look back at one of the most iconic horror film directors of all time! Join us as we examining the trademark style and calling signs of John Carpenter, aka. The Master of Horror, as director.

John Carpenter is a filmmaker best characterized by his work in genre films. He became fascinated by film at a young age and attended film school at the University of Southern California before dropping out in 1974 to film his feature debut, Dark Star. That film didn’t get much commercial traction, but caught the attention of many in the industry who admired Carpenter’s ability to make the film on a shoestring budget. His follow-up was 1976’s Assault on Precinct 13, which didn’t receive much attention upon release, but after a showing at several festivals in 1977 became a critical hit and received a strong cult following.

Oct 24, 2016

Missing the franchise's main villain, Halloween 3 may not be a canonical Halloween movie - but it's much better than you remember...

No matter how undeniably great a film Halloween was, by the middle of Halloween II some of us - seven or eight of us anyway - were already pretty bored with the idea of watching Michael Myers carving up even more teens. That’s why for that small handful, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch - no matter how different and unexpected and strange it was - came as a blessed relief.

See related Arrow season 5: trailer for episode 4, Penance Legends Of Tomorrow season 2: trailer heads to Feudal Japan Supergirl season 2: episode 4 trailer teases alien fight club

Following the mind-boggling success of the 1978 original, John Carpenter and Debra Hill had a clever idea. Instead of traditional repetitive sequels, they’d turn Halloween into an...

Forget Caltiki and forget The Blob: 'The Stuff' doesn't eat you, you eat it! Larry Cohen takes a page from Professor Quatermass for this satirical slap at blind consumerism and unregulated commerce, in a thriller packed with ooky glob-monsters and people hollowed out like Halloween pumpkins. It's the smart side of '80s sci-fi: Cohen knows how to make the genre sustain his anti-establishment themes. The Stuff Blu-ray Arrow Video (Us) 1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date April 19, 2016 / Available from Amazon / 39.95 Starring Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, Scott Bloom, Danny Aiello, Patrick O'Neal, Alexander Scourby, Harry Bellaver, Rutanya Alda, Brooke Adams, Laurene Landon, Tammy Grimes, Abe Vigoda, Clara Peller, Patrick Dempsey, Mira Sorvino, Eric Bogosian. Cinematography Paul Glickman Makeup Effects Ed French, Michael Maddi, Steve Neill, Kim Robinson, Rick Stratton, Craig Lyman Editor Armond Lebowitz Original Music Anthony Guefen Produced by Paul Kurta Written and...

Tony Sokol Jan 8, 2020

Nobody would blame you if you thought David Bowie was really an alien.

When David Bowie slipped away in 2016, he went out in a flurry of artistic output and a regret that he had more to say. His final album, Blackstar, held out the universal promise of the endless possibilities that can be found in vast emptiness of space. Bowie was an out of this world artist steeped in all forms of science fiction, and was even inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in June 2013.

Bowie first cemented his public image as a stellar performer, we can’t really blame anyone for mistaking the man and the Starman. The rock and rolling space invader had been telling us not to be “afraid of the man in the moon because it's only me" since he promised to "Love You Till Tuesday" in 1967.

Bowie blasted...

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Universal's classic monster movie Creature From The Black Lagoon was almost remade by John Carpenter in the 1990s. So what happened?

It's one of the great suspense scenes in 50s genre cinema: a woman swims in the clear cool water of an Amazonian lagoon, blissfully unaware of the grotesque creature emerging from the depths beneath her. The score builds to a crescendo as the monster closes in, reaching out with a clawed, webbed hand...

Director Jack Arnold directed some of the best American sci-fi movies of the post-wwii era, and Creature From The Black Lagoon is perhaps his most famous. About a team of scientists investigating the fossilised remains of a strange man-fish hybrid - and discovering the thing still very much alive in the depths of the Amazon - the movie was a sizeable hit for Universal when it came out in early 1954.

The cultural impact...

Where do I get my Big Brother campaign pin and yard poster? Michael Radford's elaborate Orwell adaptation sticks closely to the original book, even after decades of deriviative dystopias have stolen its fire. John Hurt is excellent as Winston Smith, and Richard Burton is his inquisitor. Nineteen Eighty-Four Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1984 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Ship Date December 8, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril Cusack, Gregor Fisher, James Walker, Phyllis Logan. Cinematography Roger Deakins Production Designer Allan Cameron Art Direction Martin Hebert, Grant Hicks Film Editor Tom Priestley Original Music (2) Dominick Muldowney / Eurythmics Written by Jonathan Gems, Michael Radford from the novel by George Orwell Produced by Al Clark, Robert Devereux, Simon Perry, Marvin J. Rosenblum Directed by Michael Radford

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

George Orwell's pessimistic 1948 novel 1984 is probably the most important political book of the last century.

I have the full rundown on the notorious spacey alternate ending to this sci-fi winner by design specialist Saul Bass. The ants are taking over, and they mean business. World conquest begins at a research lab in Arizona, where Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy and Lynne Frederick try to hold out against super-intelligent hormigas that cut them off, build sophisticated weapons and instantly adapt to any chemical attempt to stop them. Phase IV Blu-ray Olive Films 1974 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date October 27, 2015 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring Michael Murphy, Nigel Davenport, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford Cinematography Dick Bush Insect sequences Ken Middleham Art Direction John Barry Film Editor Willy Kemplen Original Music Brian Gascoigne Written by Mayo Simon Produced by Paul B. Radin Directed by Saul Bass

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Olive Films Blu-ray of the intriguing Sci-Fi curiosity Phase IV appears to be a newer, cleaner transfer than the older DVD.

Torchwood stars Eve Myles and Naoko Mori have joined a new radio adaptation of the classic Japanese horror film Ring.

Myles stars as Toni and Mori as the Narrator and Sadako in the drama adapted from Koji Suzuki's film, which has a unique binaural 3D sound.

Broadchurch's Matthew Gravelle stars as Mitchell, with Akira Koieyama as Ryugi, Masashi Fujimoto as Doctor Nagao, Yuriri Naka as Tomoko/Mai and Heather Emmanuel as Yuni.

The BBC Cymru Wales Production is directed by James Robinson.

The radio play is part of a Fright Night two-parter on BBC Radio 4, which suitably enough airs on Saturday, October 31.

The other drama is The Stone Tape, which is directed by modern horror maestro Peter Strickland, who gave us the remarkable Berberian Sound Studio.

It stars Romola Garai, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Julian Barratt with a special cameo by the star of the original version, Jane Asher.

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From Quatermass to The Year Of The Sex Olympics, the voice of classic British screenwriter Nigel Kneale is still resonant and exciting...

Conflict drives drama. What people want and how they set out to get it makes for the best entertainment: Chief Brody wants to make Amity Island a safe place for his kids; Indiana Jones wants to find the Ark of the Covenant; Mark Watney wants to survive on Mars, A giant shark, a bunch of Nazis, and a planet without an atmosphere respectively stand in their way.

But conflict isn't only a device from which to hang big action sequences. The tension between ideas can make for brilliant drama - the kind of film and television that you think about for years afterwards - and one of the best screenwriters for this conflict of ideas was Nigel Kneale.

Kneale was born in 1922 in Barrow-in-Furness and,...

Forget Route 666. The Devil’s Mile is an even more evil stretch of road in this new horror thriller starring David Hayter and directed by Joseph O’Brien, with whom we recently had a chance to chat about the film.

Devil's Mile follows a trio of kidnappers who take an ill-advised detour (is there any other kind?) en route to deliver their hostages – a pair of teenage girls - to their mysterious employer. When one of the girls dies along the way, the trio’s slowly-boiling mistrust explodes into chaos.

But what they thought was their worst day ever is only beginning as they are engulfed by the hellish forces that haunt the road - a road they may never escape.

Dread Central: This is one of the few indie horror movies that really lives up to the promo material. I'm curious to know how much the story evolved...

Humankind’s collision with otherworldly life forms can make for unforgettable cinema.

This article will highlight the best of live-action human vs. alien films. The creatures may be from other planets or may be non-demonic entities from other dimensions.

Excluded from consideration were giant monster films as the diakaiju genre would make a great subject for separate articles.

Readers looking for “friendly alien” films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), It Came from Outer Space (1953) and the comically overrated Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are advised to keep watching the skies because they won’t find them here.

Film writing being the game of knowledge filtered through personal taste that it is, some readers’ subgenre favorites might not have made the list such as War of the Worlds (1953) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).

Now let’s take a chronological look at the cinema’s best battles between Us and Them.

Although Hammer Films will always be associated with British horror, the studio did have stiff competition. Amicus specialised in the successful horror anthologies and Us counterparts American International Pictures established a permanent UK base in the mid sixties. Other smaller independents took their own bite from the cherry tree of horror with some success, the best known being Tigon Films.

Tigon has received some belated recognition in recent years. Andy Boot’s book on British horror Fragments of Fear devotes a chapter to the company while John Hamilton’s excellent book Beast in the Cellar covers the varied career of Tigon’s charismatic founder Tony Tenser.

Like Hammer’s Sir James Carreras, Tenser was one of the British Film Industry’s great entrepreneurs. Born in London to poor Lithuanian immigrants and a movie fan since childhood, he was an ambitious man with a natural talent for showmanship. Combining shrewd business...

Where the hell is Michael Myers? Halloween 3 may not be a canonical Halloween movie, but it's much better than you remember.

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tumblr Eight more days til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...Eight more days til Halloween...Silver Shamrock!

No matter how undeniably great a film the original Halloween was, by the middle of Halloween II some of us—seven or eight of us anyway—were already pretty bored with the idea of watching Michael Myers carving up even more teens. That’s why for that small handful, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, no matter how different and unexpected and strange it was (and precisely for those reasons), came as a blessed relief.

Following the mind-boggling success of the 1978 original, John Carpenter and Debra Hill had a clever idea. Instead of traditional repetitive sequels, they’d turn Halloween into an anthology series: each year a new film would come out...

Interview Andrew Blair 14 Oct 2013 - 06:32

Ahead of the release of his new thriller Last Passenger, we chat to star Dougray Scott about realism, genres, and Iain Banks...

Over the phone, while a very quiet and slightly confused engineer inspected our boiler, Den of Geek chatted to Dougray Scott – former Triffid wrangler, Imf double agent, author of Death Of A Salesman and guest star in Highlander: The TV Series – about his new film Last Passenger.

Set on a quiet, late-night commuter train out of London, the first full-length movie from short-film director Omid Nooshin sees a small group of strangers trapped on the speeding train with no help coming from outside. Think Unstoppable directed by Mike Leigh, and then try not to let your imagination run away with you next time you step on board public transport...

How did you become attached to this project? What was it about...

Stars: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy | Written by Tommy Lee Wallace, Nigel Kneale | Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace

I really hate the bad rap that Halloween III gets. I mean, it’s a stinker reputation. People are either supremely dismissive or they appreciate it for what it is – a completely underrated film with a downer of an ending and trying something new when it appears that it seemed to be heading the way of franchise, and as we undoubtedly know, it has.

The idea being that Carpenter and Debra Hill wanted something new, after all an unstoppable killer would become old hat after a while. And so, they decided to hand the reins over to the talented Tommy Lee Wallace and this is what he produced. And merciful me, it sunk and it sunk badly. Does this mean it’s a bad film? Not at all. It’s...